Bill Nelson: presiding officer: the senator from delaware. mr. carper: mr. president, i spent oh, gosh close to laugh an hour around lunchtime today with a number of goafns. there are some 30, 40 governors that were gathered

Thomas Carper: heard and n. one of the senate office build buildings just not -- that were gathered here in one of the senate office buildings just not far from where we are here today today. there were for the most

Thomas Carper: part governors who were teenagers. they were here from all over the country representing their respective states. it was great to be with them and to see the young leaders coming up through the

Thomas Carper: ranks and someday will pushll old guys like us out of the way and take over places whether it is new jersey or delaware or georgia. one the things we talked about is how difficult it is to get anything

Thomas Carper: done around here anymore. to read the constitution over the years and you read the rules of the senate over the years, there is the opportunity for the senate -- for one person to slow things down

Thomas Carper: quite a by the, for a handful of people to really -- to slow things down quite a bit, for a handful of people to really bog things up and bring things to a halt. but i've never seen a time whiff when

Thomas Carper: we've had so many filibusters. i've only been here as long as our presiding officer, but so far in this congress, i think we're up to 5 filibusters. yesterday we had another one. the issue we were

Thomas Carper: dealing with yesterday was whether or not we were going to bring up a bill to fund the development of solar fuels, goo yow thermal and other types -- geothermal and other types. the legislation would

Thomas Carper: crack down on speculators and price gouging gouging. unfortunately, we were not able to get the votes we needed to be able to move to debate the bill. so for anybody that's keeping score, there's --

Thomas Carper: it's not anybody's age here but that's how many filibusters we had to go through during the course of the year. i believe sometimes a picture can be worth 1,000 words. let's look h at a couple of

Thomas Carper: pictures here on these charts and see what we have. this particular chart -- this is a picture of what has gone on with oil prices over the last 7 1/2 years or so, starting in 200 2001 when the price

Thomas Carper: of oil was a little more than $20 a barrel. in 2004 it was up to close to $ $40 a barrel. in 2007 we're up close to, i had sea --i'd say, about $70. today approaching $170 per barrel. how does that

Thomas Carper: translate into prices at the pump? i just filled up my old chrysler town and country minivan the other day which i'm proud to say has 175,000 miles on it. delare is not a big state. we've gone up and

Thomas Carper: down the state many times in that vehicle. it's still running. we've changed the oil a couple of times. but it's getting expensive expensive to fill up the tank. when i filled up my first tank in that van

Thomas Carper: it cost me about $1. $1.30 to fill up the tank. and we filled it up this last weekend. i think it was $75 or soavment it was lot of money. it was painful. but that's what the runningup in prices

Thomas Carper: looks like. not much change at all, 2001-200 2001-20036789 then a steady climb until recently, and recent recently we've really seen it take off. those are looking at eight years years. let's

Thomas Carper: look at one year. actually, this is the -- this is another way of looking -- i don't think we'll look at this chart. we just looked at something very similar tosi this one. let's look at something

Thomas Carper: -- maybe a 2008. yeah, we do. this is just one year. this is just one year of gas prices where we saw, as we start started the year at about $3.11 per gallon. and by may 26, $3.93. and now most places

Thomas Carper: around the country we're up over $4 a gallon. and just to follow-up on what senator nelson was talking about about, why the run-up? why the run-up? we had some really smart people that came by and

Thomas Carper: testified before the energy committee -- not the energy committee, the commerce committee, last week. one guy was a fellow named george sorrows, s-o-r-o-s -- i'm sure the presiding officer knows him,

Thomas Carper: and so do many of us. one of the things he talked about that was very inciteful was the value of the asset that the oil-producing nations have -- the oil under the ground, how that is ann an appreciate

Thomas Carper: ing value over time. we've seen the increase from, what, $20 a barrel up to about $140 a barrel. an appreciate ing asset under underground. our asset is our currency, a depreciate ing asset over the last

Thomas Carper: number of years, as weaver we've seen the value of the dollar against most other currencies in the country go down and down. why would you give up an asset that's appreciate ing in value to take up an

Thomas Carper: asset, our currency, that is depreciate ing in value? why would you be anxious to pump more oil to take instead the crn crncy currency, the dollar, that is depreciate ing in value in that explains why

Thomas Carper: the oil-producing nations are reluctant to stop producing as much oil. it is not just supply and demand that is causing this run gum in prices. it is -- -- that is cause ing this run-up in prices.

Thomas Carper: it is not just the drop in dollar that is caution the run-up in prices. there's something going on with speculation. not everybody who buys, let's say a contract on delivering oil to this country,

Thomas Carper: not everybody has the intention of taking delivery of that oil? rather, they're speculating that the price is going to go up, not unlike the way people did with houses, expecting housing prices

Thomas Carper: would continue to rise and they did forever, not up until now. and speculators are speculating that the value of oil will go up up. but my guess is it won't be forever. part of our challenge is

Thomas Carper: to figure out how it won't go up forever and provide some relief at the pun. pump. this chart shows what the percentage of oil is owned by speculators between january of 1996 and april of this year.

Thomas Carper: it is a 12-year time sp, in 19 1996, less than 15% was owned by speculators. if you look at today, 2007-2008 rchtion we are , we're up to 45%. the value will continue to go up up. what can we do about

Thomas Carper: it? what can we do about it? one thing we can do about it is go after the speculators. and we certainly attempted to do that as recently as yesterday with the legislation that we could not get

Thomas Carper: 60 votes to move to. but there are some things we can do and there are some actions that we've already taken with the congress working with the administraon to encourage people to take that'll be help

Thomas Carper: helpful in bringing down the demand for a limited amount of oil those that's out in the marketplace. let me mention a few of them. i want to mention the hybrid dodge durango and the dodge chrysler

Thomas Carper: aspen. the first fruits of a recent merger have gone into a hybrid dodge durango and a chrysler aspen. today they get in the city about 14 miles per gallon. on the highway about 18. with the -- starting

Thomas Carper: in august when they'll begin selling the hybrids in the stirks i think they'll get close to 22 miles, on the highway, about 25 miles a gallon. not terrific but compared to what it was, it is almost

Thomas Carper: 50% improvement. people who are looking for a larger vehicle, an s.u.v., there's something to look for here. people don't have to buy a big vehicle to be able to enjoy better gas mileage. and i

Thomas Carper: want to mention, if i could, the chevrolet malibu hybrid. it was selected this year as the car of the year. last year the saturn aura was selected as the car of the year. we don't compete too well,

Thomas Carper: haven't competed too well for a while, in this country with the vehicles in the mid-sedan segment. but malibu is also -- j.d. powers announced that in terms of mid-sized sedans be, the malibu was selected

Thomas Carper: as top- top-quality vehicle. that's some tough competition from the camry ies and nissan alti altimas. the mali by has good gas mileage but also has a hybrid that people might be interested in,

Thomas Carper: people looking to buy a new vehicle or downsize their wheels wheels. i'd also say -- there's the saturn aura up there. right in the middle is a concept car i saw at the north american auto show about a year

Thomas Carper: and a half ago and it was a an idea at the time -- it was a full-sized mock-up of what they call the chevrolet volt. i called it icahn did i at the time. very good-looking vehicle. very attractive on

Thomas Carper: the eyes. a plug-in vehicle. you plug it in, you charge the battery, lithuania i don't mean ion battery, plug it in your garage. the next morning you drive out and go 40 miles without a charge charge.

Thomas Carper: and it has an exillery power limit -- -- and it has an auxiliary power criewnts on board. -- power unit on board. it could be a fuel cell. any one of those power systems recharge the vehicle. they

Thomas Carper: don't run the vehicle, they recharge the battery. the idea was that vehicle will be on the road in 2010, about 80 miles a gallon. now we're really talking. one of the things we are doing in the congress

Thomas Carper: is providing in investment moneys, about $100 million for investing in lithuania i don't mean iom batteries so when 2010 rolls around we have a battery that can do the job. the other thing we're doing

Thomas Carper: is we're providing tax credits for folks who buy highly energy- energy-efficient hybrids hybrids. when plug-in hybrids come along with 2010, i expect we'll see a credit there for up to about $5

Thomas Carper: $5,000 for a vehicle incentive ize people to buy the vehicles.~ we have a requirement for the federal government and postal service, the civilian side of the government and military side of the government,

Thomas Carper: 75% of the vehicles that we purchase have to be advanced technology vehicles starting this year. same kind of requirement for the postal service. the other a thing we can do as americans as consumers is

Thomas Carper: bring down the demand side and put downward pressure on prices is simply to encourage folks to take transit more. they're take tsmg they're taking it in maryland where our presiding officer is from.

Thomas Carper: they're taking it in delaware a whole lot more. transit saves nearly four million gallons of gasoline a day. at $4 per gallon, that is $16 million that is saved from transit every day. not every month,

Thomas Carper: but every day we will save $16 billion with transit. it consumes about one half of the oil than a -- an automobile driver consumes. what else can we do as consumers? people take the train. not just

Thomas Carper: the marc trains in maryland between d.c. and the delaware line, but they can take amtrak. amtrak ridership -- these are ups and downs of amtrak ridership from 1990 1991 and 2007, ridership peaks

Thomas Carper: during the holiday. what happened around here amtrak ridership on-time performance was not very good. i was on the amtrak board at the time as governor of delaware. not very good ridership. look at this,

Thomas Carper: the ridership continues to climb and ridership at amtrak is up 10 continue and this year, fiscal year to date up 15%. people take the trains. the presiding officer, i road the -- rode the train

Thomas Carper: on monday, went to philadelphia, new york, back to philadelphia. every train i took, s.r.o., standing room only. a lot of people are taking the train and it's a great way not just to save money,

Thomas Carper: but to reduce congestion in airports and on the roads too. here is what is going on commuter rail and ridership fro seattle, washington, to philadelphia, pens pes, we -- pennsylvania, seattle, washington,

Thomas Carper: ridership up for the first three months of this year, 28%, harrisburg, pennsylvania, up 17%, oakland, california, up 16%, stockton, california, 16%. pompono beach, up 6 -- 16%. the reasony come to the floor today

Thomas Carper: is to say we can -- we in congress have a responsibility to do a number of things, tax policies that encourage people to buy more energy efficient vehicles, high bids and so forth. we're doing that.

Thomas Carper: to develop lithium ion battery force the chevrolet volt and other vehicles, we're doing that. provide support for transit. the presidings ings of officer and i have done that. working hard toward that end.

Thomas Carper: provide reasonable support for amtrak and expand their compass tivment you can lead a horse to water, you can't make them drink. we, as consumers, have to take advantage where amtrak is offered. it makes

Thomas Carper: sense for us. when vehicles, when it is time to trade in a new vehicle, keep in mind the kind of vehicles out there being produced in this country and from around the world. take advantage of those an buy

Thomas Carper: those. that's what we could do as individuals to make a difference on this front. thank you, mr. president. a senator: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from wymong is recognized. mr.

Mike DeWine: enzi: mr. president, the price of gas sheen the biggest -- gas sheen the -- gasoline is the biggest issue in this country. i appreciate the comments that the senator from delaware has made. one size fits